There were a total of 21 IPO’s in 2009 of which 17 have been listed and three would be listed in the first three days of 2010. These issues are JSW Energy, Godrej Properties and DB Corp. The fourth issue was MBL which had to give an option to investors to withdraw for non adequate disclosures in the RHP.

Coming to the year 2009 of the 17 issues which listed, 8 of the issues closed in positive territory while 9 closed in negative territory.

Of the nine losers, four were in the category of less than 10%, one was in the category of more than 20% but less than 25%, three in the category of more than 30% but less than 50%, while one was more than 50%.

Of the eight gainers, two were marginal gainers with less than three % gain, one in the category of more than 15% but less than 25%, two in the category of more than 25% but less than 50%, one in the category of more than 50% but less than 60%, one with a gain of almost 160% and the top performer with a gain of 312%.

The top performer was a small education company from Chennai called Edserve Softsystems Limited. The issue price was Rs 60 and had a dramatic listing with the stock touching a high of Rs 147 on listing day and having a dramatic fall thereafter on the second day itself. In less than a week or ten days of trading fell to Rs 30 and made a low of 18.70 before rising as dramatically to higher than Rs 250 a gain of four times than the issue price.

The second best performer was another IT company which had come out with an offer for sale and fresh issue. The issue was undersubscribed and had to be extended for being subscribed. The issue has been on an uptrend ever since listing day and is up 160%. Other notable gainers included Mahindra Holidays which gained 53% and the last issue to list in 2009, Cox and Kings which has gained 37%.

Coming to the losers, the top loser was Euro Multivision which is an existing CD and DVD disc manufacturer which is now venturing into the business of manufacturing photo voltaic cells. The stock was issued at Rs 75 and made a low of Rs 27.30. The stock has lost 54% and closed trading for the year at Rs 34.45. The other significant losers were Rishabdev Technocables, Raj Oil Mills and Excel Infoways.

All the power generating companies which went public and listed last year are trading in the red with Indiabulls Power being the biggest loser at a discount of almost 23% and Adani Power now at a discount of just about 1%.

The table above shows that issues which are reasonably priced have given decent returns to investors but those where the pricing is aggressive or overpriced, issues are trading at not only a discount but also did not fare well at the time of IPO issue.

A case in point is the stupendous response received by the PSU issue of NHPC which was very heavily subscribed by all categories of investors. The issue was overpriced and as a result of the same even four months later is still trading at a discount of 5.42%.

With a spate of IPO’s from the government and the private sector expected in 2010, let us hope and pray that good sense prevails on the Promoters and Merchant Bankers and the pricing of IPO’s becomes reasonable if nothing else.

Wishing all a prosperous new year 2010.